There are some kitchen tools you can never have enough of. Spatulas. Spoons. Bowls. And basting brushes. When I got offered the opportunity to test out a four pack of 100% food-grade silicone basting brushes from X-Chef, you better believe I said yes with a quickness! And am I ever so glad I did.

You see, despite the advertisements to the contrary, silicone does hold scents and can transfer them between dishes. And up until recently, I’d been keeping my one smaller silicone brush especially for sweet and neutral dishes, or for egg washes, and a separate one for my savory dishes in a separate drawer so they never got confused. Now, thanks to X-Chef, my brushes can all go in the same drawer because they came in four bright colors to easily tell one from another. The clear lucite handles means I can even label them with a Sharpie if I so desire. The handles are long and sturdy, and the heads can slip right off for easy washing. And being that the silicone brushes are dishwasher safe, I can just toss them right in after use. They’re also temperature safe for foods up to 500°, so basting right out the over or right off the grill is no problem. What I especially liked was that the silicone on these brushes was softer than my other brushes, which means I no longer had to brush very slowly or just dab, because the silicone bristles won’t whip or fling marinades or sauces all over the counter, stovetop or oven door.

As if all that wasn’t enough, X-Chef guarantees their silicone brushes with a 1-year, “No-Hassle” money back guarantee. It’s not just convenient, it’s essential to have multiples of some tools in your kitchen. A silicone basting brush in and of itself is very essential, but having a few on hand at all times will make a day’s worth of cooking and baking a little less of a mess and hassle. At $8.99 shipped from Amazon, I don’t see any reason for your kitchen to be without them!

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from X-Chef. I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion. My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

I cook and bake a lot, and one thing I’ve learned, aside from you can never have enough mixing bowls, is you can never have enough spatulas. I usually buy them 2 or 3 at a time, and when X-Chef offered me their 4-pack, I was soooo game. They’ve been a blessing in the kitchen, but their not without their faults.

Silicone spatulas are ubiquitous in the kitchen, so much so that I don’t know a single person without one. And yet, there’s good ones, and bad ones, and the line that delineates them is often very easy to cross. To rigid and they won’t flex, to soft and they won’t hold. Too short and you end up with schmutz on your fingers, too long and you can’t get the fine control you need for nooks and crannies. Handle shape, build quality…It seems like I’m really overthinking this, but until you’ve used a bad one and been so frustrated you wanted to hurl it across the room, you realize I’m not just picking nits. X-Chef’s spatulas are almost there. There’s a lot to love here, too. They’re long enough, with good rigidity without being too stiff. They’re different colors, so you can essentially “color-code” them for different mixes when doing more than one dish. They’re dishwasher safe, non-stick, and heat resistant to over 500 degrees Fahrenheit. But then they sort of start to fall apart, figuratively speaking. The shape of the spatula is did not have enough curve on the end, and there was no tip for whipping up peaks or getting into corners. The handles are thin and not too ergonomic, so prolonged use will be a pain in the hand. And the palstic the handles are made from is the kind that clouds and gets brittle after a few trips through the dishwasher. I don’t know about you, but after spends a couple hours mixing and making int he kitchen, the last thing I want to do is stand there for another 30 minutes hand washing everything.

Maybe I’m being too picky. A four pack of these X-Chef spatulas with only run you $6.99 shipped. At that price I would look at them as disposable, because they certainly aren’t going to last a very long time. So in the end, you could do much worse. You could also do a lot better. They do have a ” LIFETIME NO-HASSLE FREE-REPLACEMENT GUARANTEE!”, but when mine discolored and cracked, I asked them about it through the “contact us” potion of the website and didn’t get a response yet.

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from X-Chef. I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion. My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

Our little dog can be messy. We’re partially to blame for this, since we used to hide “nummers” under her kibble to entice her to eat what my Husband likes to call her “dry cereal”. And in the process, she’ll nose half the kibble out of her bowl because there just has to be something better at the bottom. We’d taken to putting a plastic party platter under her bowl to try to keep from crunching every time we walked into the garage. It was awkward, hard to clean, and probably should be tossed by now. But then Tip Top Petware offered me their Silicone Pet Food mat, and now all is right with the world.

Made from 100% food-grade non-slip silicone, it’s water proof, non-toxic, dishwasher safe, flexible and durable. It has a raised lip all around to help keep spills, both wet and dry, on the mat and off the floor. at 18.5″ by 11.5″ it’s big enough for both food and water bowls, and can be kept clean with a simple damp cloth or Clorox wipe. You can fold it up like a taco to pour “spilled” food back into the bowl where it belongs, and comes in four different colors: Black, grey, pink and red. It even has the most adorable little paw at the top corner.

I would advise future buyers to open it, wash it and let it air out a bit to lessen the silicone smell. Our pooch wouldn’t touch her bowl at first because the smells were all wrong, but that was our mistake, not a fault of Tip Top Petware. Now a month in and we wonder how we got along without it. At $18.95, it’s a little on the pricey side, but when you consider how much potential damage you’re preventing, what with the spills, drips, a scooting of bowls, it will probably pay for itself quite quickly.

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I received the above product(s) free of charge from Tip Top Petware. I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion. My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.

The last silicone cups you will need to buy! When silicone cups and “pans” came on the market, I was excited to see how the material would work with my baking mixes. I went from being optimistic to then using a pan with 6-cupcake molds that I literally used once and tossed away. First, the thing was flimsy and you had to be careful filling it with batter as a collapse was eminent and lastly, it did not perform well leaving me with uneven baked cupcakes that were dry. Easily clean-up made me rethink what was easy in my book was not at all easy in theirs. I had to soak the wanna-be pan and in 1 years time, the pan became sticky to the touch like the silicone was breaking down by just being exposed to air because I never used it again. Hardest 6 cupcakes, which I later tossed, that I ever had to bake! I swore off silicone and just baked in parchment cups.

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In comes Grazia with the heaviest silicone cups I have ever felt. To give you an idea, the container of 24 cups weighs close to 9 ounces (unfilled). Sturdy and the happiest colors that fit with any celebration. The silicone material that Grazia uses is:

Oven Safe

Microwave Safe, meaning you can make “one-cup” servings to satisfy any craving

Can be used in the Freezer, so you can have ready-to-bake batches ready to go

Dishwasher Safe for easy clean-ups

The product has a non-stick finish too, so no need for baking sprays with harsh chemicals

Most importantly, also BPA-Free and Grazia uses a silicone material that is FDA&LFGB approved (food-grade silicone)

Each cup holds 2.5 ounces of batter, filling, anything you want to create! You can make savory treats too by using Puff Pastry combined with cheeses and meats. Great way to welcome in 2015 with little mess to clean-up.

Grazia Bakeware is not like any other silicone baking cup I have felt on the market. No collapsing when pouring can occur because the cups are engineered with “real-life” baking in mind, meaning the cups stay put and are easily moved on-to a baking pan and again easily transferred without worrying of spilling or even crushing a cupcake if you happen to touch/move the cup. I can just bake as I always do minus wasting money and parchment paper with the cups I would buy or make before. You just pop-out your creations and start munching or easily make a basket of goodies to give-away.

Easy to fill and use!

24-Cups in 4 beautiful and bright colors!

Sturdy cups that keep their shape and form!

Retail Price Point: $11.99 on Amazon and Grazia stands by their products by providing a Life-time Gurantee

Grazia also supplies you with 24 cups to use in 4 different colors. You can use as many as you need and not have to clean-up an entire pan even if some cups were not used. You simply soak in warm soapy water after using and I let mine air dry on the rack before storing them away in the same plastic cylinder holder provided. So easy to clean that I felt I did not even need to use the dishwasher!

I received the above product(s) free of charge from Grazia. I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion. My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.